2013 Movie Awards- The "I Just Don't Get It Award"

My first year-end movie award goes to the praise that Stories We Tell has been receiving from critics I follow. It's the second consecutive film by Sarah Polley that left me cold. Polley's last film Take This Waltz was about a marriage falling apart and a woman finding a spark from outside her marriage. I thought Michelle Williams' performance was pretty ridiculous, and there was no drama to me as to why the marriage was failing, especially given that her husband (played by Seth Rogen) was doing things like dumping cold water over her head each morning while she showered. There was no indication that there was ever a spark, so the film just didn't work for me.

In Stories We Tell, Polley portrays her own family's drama. It should be a very fascinating story, as Polley interviews family to find out the identity of her birth father. However, I felt nothing but distanced from the story, as certain decisions Polley made almost made it feel like Polley was making this film strictly for her family. She has a family member read the narration for the film live, and to me it would have been more fascinating to get more of her reaction about all this, as to me she feels more like a bystander.

Nebraska

In Alexander Payne's latest film Nebraska, Will Forte plays Daniel Grant.  Daniel is a very patient man, and he has to be.  His father Woodrow is an alcoholic who is pretty much oblivious to the world around him, and his mother doesn't have any filter and constantly badmouths Woodrow (and pretty much everyone else).

 

Woodrow receives a letter saying that he may have won a million dollars, which he takes to mean that he has won a million dollars.  He no longer drives, so he starts walking to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim his prize.  Daniel, realizing that his father is not going to stop trying to get there, offers to drive him to Lincoln.  This also offers both of them a respite from his mother's sharp tongue, so they set out for Lincoln.  They do make a stop to visit family, and when word gets out of Woodrow's supposed winnings, complications ensue with friends, family, and others in the town they visit.

 

Overall, I thought Nebraska was an outstanding film, one of the best I've seen all year.  Between Nebraska and The Descendants, Payne has shown a mastery of how to portray a family, warts and all.   In fact, the two films go together very well even though there is a stark contrast in the setting.  The Descendants takes place in Hawai'i, and the beauty of the island makes Hawai'i almost a character in itself.  Nebraska is shot in black and white, which de-emphasizes the scrubby settings and puts more emphasis on the characters.

 

Speaking of the characters, Bruce Dern plays the exasperating Woodrow as a man who can't get out of his own way and doesn't seem to want to.  Forte is mostly a reactionary character, as he has to deal with his exasperating, yet still intimidating father and crochety mother (not to mention all the other characters from their past.

 

Nebraska's not in wide release as of yet, but is definitely worth seeing, as I have a feeling one or more Academy Awards could be in the cards for such an excellent film.